Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Knock at the door

Bingo! The Walters Prize finalists have been announced and the OTN panel scored a remarkable 4 out of 4. Congratulations to all those concerned. We know you have a choice of guessing games and we want to thank you for working with us. And congratulations again to Sriwhana, Alicia, Kate and Simon. 

One curious fact, all the nominated exhibitions took place offshore. Kate Newby in Bremen, Sriwhana Spong in Melbourne, Simon Denny in Sydney and Alicia Frankovich in Berlin. It makes you wonder how many of the jurors (David Cross, Aaron Kreisler, Kate Montgomery, and Gwynneth Porter) saw all, or even any of them? 

Well wonder no more (or only for a few more days) because we are going to ask them on your behalf. You certainly do get the feeling from the media release it could be a sensitive issue. The Rules are brandished to prove that choosing four offshore exhibitions is ok. ‘For the first time ever this year’s Prize features a group of works all of which were first shown off-shore, although there have been many works of this kind included over the years, as the Prize rules allow’. 

And why were these four exhibitions selected? Let's go to the Jurors. “Ultimately, each project demonstrated a palpable influence on the art making and viewing communities from which it has arisen.” OTY on that one.